Does God Still Heal? Scholars Examine Evidence
Part 1 in a series on "Pentecost and the Holy Spirit Today"
By Josh Shepherd Published on April 24, 2018
https://stream.org/does-god-still-heal/
The African schoolgirl stared up into the sky. She was surrounded by a crowd of other children, as well as men and women. Many had come to hear a message of hope from missionaries. But the girl could barely hear, and could not speak at all. Now a woman from America had come near to pray for her....
..."In certain parts of Africa, it's really hard to get to hospitals and receive the kind of medical attention we have here in the United States," says Ford. "They bring all the sick to these meetings. They bring the deaf and the lame."
One day, the ministry team led by
Heidi Baker trekked to a remote village deep in what they call "the bush" — many miles from their central base in Pemba, Mozambique. A hundred villagers gathered, including many sick or facing disability.
Baker preached the gospel through a translator and sign language. Then she motioned for those unable to hear and speak, that it was time to pray for them....
...Foolishness, Fanaticism, or Holy Fire?
The activity of the Holy Spirit among Christians has been contentious for centuries. Recently many respected evangelical authors have examined the supernatural closer. Eric Metaxas spent years researching his 354-page tome
Miracles. Last month, former journalist Lee Strobel released
The Case for Miracles.
Weeks ago Scot McKnight published
Open to the Spirit, urging believers to see how
Scripture supports supernatural experiences. A professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, his views reflect a synthesis of many evangelical streams. "I grew up being very skeptical of the Holy Spirit," says McKnight in an interview with The Stream.
"I saw so many goofy things, abuses and misuses of the spiritual gifts."...
.... "My grandmother was a Holiness Pentecostal," he says. "She didn't believe her own family were Christians, because none of us had spoken in tongues! As a ten year-old kid,
I saw wild phenomena in her church that would make your jaw drop."
His book captures scenes from that
Apostolic Holiness Church in southern Illinois. From people rushing the altar midway through service to an eruption of prayer among all congregants at once, it differed from his Baptist roots. So did the amusing beehive hairdos.
...Such experiences scratch the surface of what
Dr. Michael Brown unveils in
Playing with Holy Fire. It follows in the vein of his bestseller
Hyper-Grace, which called prosperity preachers to account. This time, the seminary teacher offers a rebuke to fellow charismatics engaged in outrageous activity.
Brown cites several disturbing anecdotes. One lead singer "used mild profanity to end a worship time" to show his spiritual freedom. A prophet in South Africa encouraged church members to drink a potentially lethal disinfectant to receive healing.
And a Colorado group called Stoner Jesus urged students to inhale marijuana while they "hash out" the meaning of Scriptures.
"We have to bring correction so that God can take us deeper," says Brown in an interview. "The Holy Spirit is not a sensationalist display. He is not to make us look good or for our own self-exaltation."...
...Roots of the Modern Charismatic Movement
In his book, Scot McKnight unpacks dozens of New Testament passages to illuminate the third member of the Trinity. "The Holy Spirit's mission is to glorify Christ," he says.
"Wherever Christ is being glorified, we know the Spirit is at work there."
He traces back the current charismatic movement to surprising roots. "The charismatic movement derives from the Holiness tradition in the United States," he says.
"The Holiness tradition derives from the Great Awakenings — from John Wesley and George Whitefield, to Charles Finney and Jonathan Edwards."
"There are no leaders in the history of the church more concerned with and marked by holiness than the fountains of the Holiness movement itself," says McKnight.
Known for esteeming the Word of God and holding to high moral standards, the Pentecostal-Holiness movement gained prominence in the
early 20th century....
...When Researchers Went to Study Faith Healing
In June 2009, a research team from Indiana University journeyed to rural Mozambique. Iris Global, led by
Heidi and Rolland Baker, has ministered to orphans in this region for decades. The researchers were tasked with studying whether the ongoing reports of healing from blindness and hearing loss were factual.
Dr. Candy Brown and her team carefully charted tests of two dozen Mozambicans, before and after prayer. Their results published in the peer-reviewed Southern Medical Journal astounded the world. "Both auditory and visual improvements were statistically significant across the tested populations," the researchers concluded.
Now leading a ministry in the Dallas area, Dehavilland Ford speaks often of what she witnessed in 2006. "
I had never experienced a move of the Holy Spirit like that before, nor have I seen it since," she says. "Look at the
fruit of those lives.
After these encounters, they shared their testimonies and the gospel in their villages. That province in Mozambique has been revolutionized by the power of God."....
...Eternal Truths, Imperfect Expressions
A proponent of charismatic practices, Dr. Brown nonetheless has concerns about
abuses of sound theology he's seen across the U.S. and beyond. He seeks solutions in the Bible to
common errors and excesses.
"I truly believe that
God wants to pour out His Spirit more than we've ever seen," says Brown.
"If that's to happen, we have to set our house in order. Through the gifts, the
Holy Spirit touches a hurting and dying world — for the glory of God."
McKnight believes such
course-correction cannot come soon enough. "Something happened in the charismatic movement that
glorified freedom and tolerance, an attitude of I-won't-judge-you-if-you-won't-judge-me," he says.
"It has led to a corruption of Spirit-prompted holiness."...
..."I much prefer the noise of the maternity ward to the quiet of the cemetery," he says. "But in the maternity ward, you have a lot of things you have to clean up. That's the case in our movement."